The United States has submitted a United Nations Security Council resolution backing a three-phased hostage deal and a two-state resolution to the conflict.
“Numerous leaders and governments, including in the region, have endorsed this plan – and we call on the Security Council to join them in calling for the implementation of this deal without delay and further conditions,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement.
She urged the 15-member USNC to “not let this opportunity pass by,” adding that “We must speak with one voice in support of this deal.”
The three-phase proposal
She spoke up just three days after US President Joe Biden unveiled an Israeli proposal for a hostage deal, to which Hama has yet to respond.
“The Security Council must insist that Hamas accept the deal,” Thomas-Greenfield stressed.
The deal would, in the first phase, allow for the release of female and elderly hostages as well as those who are sick and infirmed in exchange for a lull in the fighting.
The issue of a permanent ceasefire, a Hamas condition for a deal, would only be discussed starting on day 16 of phase one, turning that phase essentially into a negotiating platform.
It attempts to bridge a deadlock that has dogged the negotiations for months, with Hamas insistence on an Israeli pledge to halt the war in advance of the release of any of the remaining 124 captives. Israel, in turn, has insisted that it won’t end the war until Hamas is totally defeated.
The US, which has provided backup support to the deal’s main negotiators, Egypt and Qatar, has hoped to use the lull in the fighting to put in place a permanent ceasefire that would strip Hamas of its military and governance capabilities in Gaza rather relying as Israel has on a military solution.
Among its main tools to achieve this goal is a triad Saudi deal that includes a Washington-Riyadh security pact, an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement, and a path to Palestinian statehood.
Netanyahu has faced political backlash for the deal, with his coalition partners Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party
The US, in the last few days, has been engaged in a massive diplomatic push to drum up wide international support for the deal to exert pressure on Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has recently spoken with many of his Middle Eastern counterparts, including those from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Turkey. Biden on Monday asked Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani to help pressure Hamas to take the deal. The G7 put out a statement in support of the deal.
The resolution would serve as yet another pressure lever to show Hamas that there is international support for the agreement. It comes as France and Algeria are pushing their own resolutions calling for an end to the fighting.
The US resolution, which could be brought to a vote this week, “Welcomes the new [hostage] deal announced on May 31 and calls upon Hamas to accept it fully and implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
It “notes that swift implementation of this deal would enable a ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in Gaza, the release of hostages, a surge in humanitarian assistance, restoration of basic services, and the return of Palestinian civilians to northern Gaza.”
The resolution “stresses the importance of the parties adhering to the terms of the deal once agreed, with the aim of bringing about a permanent cessation of hostilities, and calls upon all Member States and the UN to support its implementation. It reiterates the “unwavering commitment to the vision of a two-state solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders, consistent with international law and relevant UN resolutions, and in this regard stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”
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